The form and style of these vases link them to a group of pieces known as ‘Mamluk Revival’ ware, produced in Syria in the early twentieth century and marketed through Cairo, where the Sultans there gave considerable stimulus towards their production and sale. The Mamluk period (1250–1517) was the greatest Islamic empire of the later Middle Ages and included control of the holy cities Mecca and Medina. During it, the arts flourished with an especial concentration on elaborately decorated metalware and it was these pieces which provided the inspiration for the twentieth century craftsmen copying and adapting their style. Similar and rather grander pieces are known where the brass is inlaid with silver and copper, often with Islamic calligraphy. This pair of vases is rather more modest and perhaps intended for a domestic rather than export audience, but no small amount of care was taken in their manufacture, the soldered joins of the various panels forming the vases as a whole requiring great skill. Under a strong light the decoration, from which a considerable amount of old dried polish has been removed, glows with an attractive intensity and the vases certainly have a pronounced ‘Islamic’ look and feel.